School Specialists

Email: s.holmes@5rspartnership.com

Dr Stephen Holmes (B Ed, MBA, M Ed, PhD) is the Founder and Principal of The 5Rs Partnership established in 2004 based in Singapore, with offices in Malaysia, Australia, and Vietnam. 

Dr Holmes is widely regarded to be the world’s most experienced, credentialed consultant/facilitator in reputation management, marketing, and strategic planning for schools and universities.

Stephen has built his name over 3 decades as a world authority in applying these concepts specifically to the education sector. He is the only full-time consultant in the world with a PhD in the specific field of education marketing and reputation. In the late 1990s, Stephen developed the 5Rs framework (recruitment, retention, referral, relationships, reputation) in his seminal PhD study to establish a working framework for schools and universities to become responsive and market oriented.

Stephen consults globally with schools and universities at the highest levels with an unmatched international client base in breadth and depth. Research has always informed his consulting, something that helps to forge trust with his education sector clients globally.

In 2021/22 alone, Dr Holmes was commissioned for major school and university projects in each of: Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, South America, the US, UK, and New Zealand. Stephen was the first member of the Council of International Schools (CIS) Consultant Network (preferred consultant status).

With a professional education background spanning school teaching, senior management, and Board membership, a university academic in both education and business faculties, and a university executive director of marketing, Stephen brings a unique background and perspective for schools and universities.

Stephen’s education sector contributions have extended to course development and delivery of masters of education courses at leading universities in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He is the author of a specialist book on education marketing.

Click here for recent and upcoming conference speaking engagements and click here for recent articles from Stephen.

Email: e.mayer@5rspartnership.com

Based in Philadelphia in the US, and originally trained as an architect, Eric has been an educator for three decades, primarily in day/boarding schools. He has taught at the middle and high school levels, and served as an Upper School division director.

Eric is now in his third post as a Head of School, including international (Europe) and domestic headships.

With previous roles as a varsity coach, dormitory head, department chair, and dean of faculty, Eric brings extensive experience in student life and school administration to build progressive, global minded practices and thinking in schools.

In recent times, Eric has been involved specifically in learning and training for racial equity in schools.

As a consultant for The 5Rs Partnership, Fran (BA (Hons), Dip Ed., B Ed St., M Ed.St, FACE, FACEL, AFILM, GAICD) advises schools in strategy, leadership, innovation and school reputation.

Fran is a distinguished educator with experience spanning more than 30 years, including teaching at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

She was previously Principal of Mentone Girls’ Grammar School (Melbourne, Australia), where she successfully served the pursuit of excellence and innovation in education for over 14 years.

Fran is well known for her innovative and high-impact improvement projects and for her astute skills and understanding of the relational quality of a school with its complexity in stakeholder management.

She is recognised as an outstanding educator and is noted on the ‘Educator Hotlist’ (2018) and recorded in Who’s Who for her contribution to education.

She is an accredited school reviewer and is conversant with Australian and international quality (CIS) benchmarks. Fran is also bilingual (English/French), an asset for many of our international school clients.

Fran is a graduate of the Institute of Company Directors, and her extensive work with Boards has focussed on governance, strategic planning, and leading strategic planning processes. She has served as President of the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia, the peak advocacy group for girls’ education.

Fran enjoys investing in the next generation and her contribution as a director includes service on the Boards of a university residential college, a charitable trust, an educational board serving the teaching profession, and as an advisor for a not-for-profit supporting student wellbeing.

Mai Nguyen has extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative research projects in Vietnam and the United States. Her previous roles include being a senior analyst at Oregon State University (OSU) Student Affairs Research, Evaluation & Planning office, where she worked on first-year student retention issues, a consulting assistant at OSU Department of Statistics, and a policy intern at the Oregon Department of Energy.

At the 5Rs Partnership, Mai has been involved in various projects, including business development, qualitative research such as desk-based research, documents review, focus group moderation, stakeholder interviews, and quantitative research such as online surveys creation and monitoring, data analytics, and visualizations. She is also responsible for building databases in support of market monitoring and competitor analysis.

Mai holds an M.S. in Statistics, an MPP, and a B.A. in Economics from OSU. She is fluent in English and Vietnamese.

Katey-Leigh is based in the Middle East, and a graduate of Monash University Business School in Malaysia.

After commencing her career with US boutique consulting company Solidance, Katey-Leigh has been working with 5Rs Partnership since 2017 and supports Dr Holmes in expansion of our strategy and services for schools and universities across the world.

Katey-Leigh is particularly focused in her role on our business development and expansion in both the United States and UK independent school markets. Katey-Leigh is also an experienced qualitative researcher and supports our research team.